Daniel Study / From the Pastor's Desk / Sunday Sermons

Serving God Where You Are, the Way You Are

Heroes often get celebrated, but the ordinary, can be forgotten.  The truth is though, that the world doesn’t run on heroes. The world runs on ordinary people doing good. It runs on people doing the right thing, over and over every day, unnoticed.  While heroes are needed to stop super villains, what has helped us all the most is someone using their gifts and strengths on an everyday level to help one or two people near them. The message today is meant to help encourage everyone to recognize the ways that God has uniquely shaped and placed each of them …

Daniel Study / From the Pastor's Desk / Sunday Sermons

Responding Well to Correction

Can you remember the last time someone corrected you?  How did you feel about that?  Were you glad or sad or angry?  Correction is something we all need at times, some more than others, but we are often resistant.  To accept correction means we are admitting we were wrong.  Admitting we were wrong means admitting we are not perfect and that someone knew something we didn’t or they discovered something we hoped would remain hidden. Ouch. Our prideful natures do not like that.  But do we really want to go through life being wrong?  Does it really help us if …

Daniel Study / Fun Stuff

Moved to Prayer

What impact does watching the news have on you? What impact does the Word of God have on you?  Sometimes, it should be the same – intense prayer.  The pain, suffering, and depravity we see on the news should drive us to call out to God.  The wonder, awe, and terror that come from getting a good view of God and ourselves through the Scriptures should also drive us to God.  In fact, the more we thoughtfully read God’s Words, the more we see the world through His eyes, and the more we will want his intervention in it. Daniel …

Daniel Study / From the Pastor's Desk / Sunday Sermons

Help for Understanding God’s Ways

When things go bad in the world, we often start to wonder what God is doing. Why is He allowing so many problems, so much trouble? We are tempted to think, to worry, that maybe God has faded from the scene or stopped caring. Because He knows our humanness and our tendencies, God has taken steps to prepare us for bad times. He has always done that for His people. Over the next few weeks, we are going to see this as we continue our study in Daniel. We are not just going to look at the “what” of prophecy, …

Daniel Study / Sunday Sermons

From Disillusionment to Joy

“He is Risen!” was not the first words some of the disciples said when they heard about the empty tomb.  Most were saying “He is Missing!”.  Maybe that is how you feel sometimes.  Sometimes  we expect God to show up in a certain way: heal a friend, fix a problem, calm this chaotic world.  Sometimes He does just what we hoped but sometimes He doesn’t.  Does it mean He is missing?  Has He failed?  Does He not really care? That is how many of the disciples felt.  Their world was turned upside down when they saw Him die on the …

Sunday Sermons

What is God doing in the Northeast?

Today we are excited to have with us Dan Nichols of the Northeast Collaborative.  Dan is going to share with us the vision and work of the Northeast Collaborative, telling us about the exciting things God is doing in and through churches in our region.  He will be making his main ministry presentation in the Sunday School hour, then tell us more in the morning service and encouraging us from God’s Word. Join us here for the morning service or come on out to Sunday School at 9:30 to catch everything in person!

From the Pastor's Desk / Sunday Sermons

Acknowledging the Conflict With Hope

It is easy to forget that God calls us to be salt and light in this world.  Christ followers can become jaded to the sin and depravity of  the culture and miss how far status quo is from the lifestyle  God calls us to.  Many have done this and find themselves a long way from God’s standard and quite similar to the world’s.  They have lost the distinctiveness of a holy lifestyle that points the way to God. There is also another extreme we can go to, and that is feeling hopeless and helpless to make a difference.  We wonder …

From the Pastor's Desk / Sunday Sermons

What’s in My Future?

Have you ever wondered what the future held?  Being able to answer that has been the plotline of many stories, TV shows, and movies.  Sometimes it would be very convenient to know what tomorrow holds, sometimes it would be horrible. Only one really knows the future, whether we are speaking of our personal future or the future of the world, and that one is God.  Astrologers and mystics pretend to, but only God knows for sure.  He does not just “see” the future, but He controls the future (Isaiah 46:9-10).  Not only that, He has revealed some glimpses of it …

Daniel Study / Sunday Sermons

Customs and Convictions

Probably the most familiar story from the book of Daniel is his rescue from the lions den.  Are you familiar with it?  Daniel’s excellence gets him a promotion and that brings great jealousy among his peers.  They set out to ruin him but the job is hard because he is too good so they… you’ll just have to join us to hear the whole story. The message today, however, is not just telling a great, true story, it’s about what we can learn from it.  How we respond in a tough situation has everything to do with our character and …

Daniel Study / From the Pastor's Desk / Sunday Sermons

Learning from other’s mistakes . . . or not

George Santayana said: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”.  It might be more accurate to say, “Those who don’t learn from the past are condemned to repeat it” because it is possible to know something without really benefitting from that knowledge.  I’m afraid I can testify that it happens a lot.  It is not good enough to know, we have to act on what we know. In Daniel 4 we saw Nebuchadnezzar learn a very important lesson by a very difficult means.  God had to drive him from the throne with a bout of insanity …